Get to Know The Country Bears Jamboree

You’re in the Magic Kingdom, decidedly the most magical place on the entire planet and you’re PSYCHED! You’re being pulled in a million different directions to see Princesses, to ride Space Mountain, to cool off on Splash Mountain and oh my goodness does that cart have Mickey shaped ice cream?! Take a breath my friends, it’s hot, you’re tired and you deserve 11 minutes of good, old fashioned, vintage Disney fun. Do not miss out of “The Country Bears Jamboree.” It was important to Walt that you and your family see it. C’mon, you don’t want to let Walt down, do you?

The Country Bears Jamboree is an ORIGINAL attraction from the park’s opening in 1971. It was the last attraction that Walt reviewed and worked on before his passing. After it’s opening it became so incredibly popular that it was the first attraction original to Walt Disney World that Disneyland replicated it for it’s park.

The Country Bears Jamboree truly is old school Disney at it’s best. It isn’t what we’d consider by today’s standards to be “politically correct” which is part of it’s immense charm. The songs are catchy, the humor is fun for both kids and adults and the bears are just awesome. Our old pals had a refurbishment back in 2012 and they are all spruced up with new fur and new costumes but the music you loved as a kid is still hanging on. (Anyone have the original soundtrack? Did you know you can STILL buy it on vinyl?)

Our family’s favorite bear has also been Big Al. Did you know that Big Al’s singing voice is actually famed country music legend Tex Ritter? (Who is also the father to the late TV legend John Ritter.) Disney pulled out all the stops to give Big Al a true, authentic country sound.

While you enjoy the INDOOR waiting queue (look down to see the bears’ claw marks all over the floor), press yourself a Frontierland penny for a souvenir and check out all the fun bears immortalized in the artwork around the room. You’ve earned this break from the sun, drink in the coolness!

Space Mountain will wait, it’s not going anywhere. Take the time to enjoy this legendary piece of Disney history, after all, it’s the REAL laughing place in my opinion.

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I am a self professed “Disney Nerd” originally from Maryland now residing in Wake Forest, NC with my husband and two daughters. My love of Disney began in elementary school with a massive crush on Prince Phillip after seeing “Sleeping Beauty” for the first time. I traveled to WDW as a young child in the 70s but hadn’t returned until 2000 with my then college sweetheart. (Now husband, lucky dog) The love affair with the parks ignited with that trip and hasn’t slowed. We’ve taken our daughters annually as soon as they were out of diapers, and fill the time that we aren’t at the parks with helping friends book their trips, listening to Disney music and incessantly quoting Disney movie lines to each other.